Cuscus ( or ) is the common name generally given to the

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

within the four genera of

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologi ...

n possum of the family

Phalangeridae The Phalangeridae are a family of mostly nocturnal marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea, and Eastern Indonesia, including the cuscuses, brushtail possums, and their close relatives. Considered a type of possum, most species are arboreal, ...

with the most tropical distribution: * ''

Ailurops The bear cuscuses are the members of the genus ''Ailurops''. They are marsupials of the family Phalangeridae. The bear cuscuses are arboreal marsupials. Almost nothing is known of their status and ecology. Although some scientists assign all po ...

'' * ''

Phalanger ''Phalanger'' (from the Greek ''phalangion'', meaning spider's web, from their webbed (fused) toesChambers English Dictionary) is a genus of possums. Its members are found on New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, other nearby small islands, and Aust ...

'' * ''

Spilocuscus ''Spilocuscus'' is a genus of marsupial in the family Phalangeridae. Its members are found on the Cape York Peninsula of Australia, New Guinea, and smaller nearby islands. It contains the following species: *Admiralty Island cuscus, ''Spilocusc ...

'' * ''

Strigocuscus Dwarf cuscus (''Strigocuscus'') is a nocturnal, arboreal marsupial genus in the family Phalangeridae found only in Sulawesi (the largest island in Wallacea) and some of its surrounding small offshore islands. Due to the unique biogeography o ...

'' The name is also applied in parts of Indonesia to the

Sunda slow loris The Sunda slow loris (''Nycticebus coucang'') or greater slow loris is a strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris native to Indonesia, West Malaysia, southern Thailand and Singapore. It measures from head to tail and weighs between . ...

, where people do not distinguish this from the "kuskus"

possums Possum may refer to: Animals * Phalangeriformes, or possums, any of a number of arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi ** Common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula''), a common possum in Australian urban a ...

. Note however, that the loris, being a

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

, is unrelated to the other cuscus species. Cuscus are

marsupial Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a ...

s, even though they have some appearances, traits and attributes like those of

lemur Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are wet-nosed primates of the superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are endemic to the island of Madagas ...

s of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, which are

prosimian Prosimians are a group of primates that includes all living and extinct strepsirrhines ( lemurs, lorisoids, and adapiforms), as well as the haplorhine tarsiers and their extinct relatives, the omomyiforms, i.e. all primates excluding the si ...

Further reads

* New Species of Cuscus. N.p., n.p, 1900. * Image, Cool. Cuscus Journal: 150 Page Lined Notebook/Diary. N.p., CreateSpace Publishing Platform, 2016. * Salas, Leonardo A.. Comparative Ecology and Behavior of the Mountain Cuscus (Phalanger Carmelitae), Silky Cuscus (Phalanger Sericeus) and Coppery Ringtail (Pseudochirops Cupreus) at Mt. Stolle, Papua New Guinea. N.p., University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 2002. * Nowak, Ronald M.. Walker's Marsupials of the World. United States, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.

References

Mammal common names Possums {{Diprotodont-stub

See also

Further reads

References